In the Arab world, public baths were an essential part of traditional culture while remaining something of a mystery to outsiders, especially the uninitiated. The concept of ritual public bathing became widespread in Egypt from the beginning of the Islamic era, when Amr Ibn al-Aas established the first baths in his capital of Fustat. The 10th-century Arab historian al-Maqrizi recorded that the Caliph al-Aziz Billah built the first of the famous baths of the Fatimid era. Public baths continued to flourish in the Ottoman period.
Bride and groom
The baths attracted people of all classes and from all walks of life. Many people did not have baths in their homes, but even those who did thought the bathhouses were the ultimate luxury. Visitors to Egypt praised the baths, speaking of their cleanliness and magnificent architectural styles. Ibn Abdel-Zaher (685H/1286AD) mentioned that in Cairo there were 80 baths.
Women used the baths to cleanse themselves and wallow in the luxury. Men would go for a massage and steam bath and a dip in the hot and cold pools, hoping to be slim and elegant. In the old days brides and bridegrooms would bathe before their wedding. The bride went in the early morning to be prepared, while the bridegroom went later to bath and shave. The bride would have henna and makeup applied, emerging in her wedding gown and wafted with perfume. The procession would lead from the gate of the bath straight to the marital home.
Safety and comfort
The Mamluk and Ottoman rulers cared deeply about the public baths, organising the entry, affording safety and comfort, and even assigning an employee, called a mohtaseb (inspector), to supervise them. To guarantee health rules, shoemakers were not allowed to enter the baths so that people would not be contaminated by the smell and toxins from leather, and lepers were also banned. The inspector would also oversee the twice-daily cleaning, and the tiled floor was scraped over with a rough tool so that people would not slip on the soapy residue. The baths were also fumigated with coal and frankincense twice a day.
In the Ottoman era bathhouses consisted of a central building with a narrow, ornamented gate—sometimes two, one for men and the other for women—inlaid with ivory and ebony. Inside the bathhouse were six or seven rooms with tiled floors and walls clad with soft white marble. One of these rooms was a hot room, a square tower topped by a dome set with holes glazed with colourful glass allowing a little light to fall. A burner placed under the marble tiles in this room heats the water running over it through channels in the floor, and so produces steam. Today’s baths still keep many of the old traditions, such as separating men and women, and using the same implements such as rough cloths and pumice stone which scrubs the dead skin off the feet and hands to make them soft.
Still popular
Among the public baths still in use today are those at Malatili, Qalaoun, Abassiya, Sultan Inal, Bab al-Bahr, Hammam al-Talat, and al-Sharawi. Malatili dates back to 1780 and is said to have been established at the time of the Ottoman Wali, Ismail Pahsa, and to have taken its current name from a popular film by the director Salah Abu-Seif. Its name also derives from Mr Malt, the most famous of the bath’s employees. The bath is open for women in the morning and men in the afternoon.
The baths currently have 12 employees, some dealing directly with the bathers—as masseur, concierge, hairdresser, tea boy and so on—and others running the hothouse system in the bathhouse. The task of the bath owner, the hammammi, is to supervise the administration of the bathhouse, and keep the accounts. Women’s bathhouses have a ballanna who acts as masseuse and removes hair from the legs, and plies henna for brides.